I am pleased to write this column for the first time in my role as Candidates' Council president, having taken office at the conclusion of APsaA's 2011 National Meeting in January. I am thrilled to work alongside our skilled Executive Committee, composed of president-elect Navah Kaplan, treasurer Jamie Cromer, and secretary Valerie Golden. I would also like to thank and congratulate Carmela Pérez for her impressive efforts and successes as the previous president of the Candidates' Council (formerly called the Affiliate Council). Her enthusiastic and hardworking leadership style helped advance the Candidates' Council's presence within APsaA and provided a professional home for candidates from across the country.
During my term I hope to focus on the notion of analytic identity within the psychoanalytic world and in the broader context of the mental health field. All of us, and especially trainees, must struggle to authentically internalize a psychoanalytic self, while accurately presenting ourselves as viable competitors in the mental health community. Powerful transferences to trainers, doubts about the efficacy of budding interpretive prowess, and insecurities about economic futures constantly threaten the stability of beginning analysts. Candidates must also move nimbly between their roles as students, patients, analysts, and supervisees several times daily. In short, acquiring analytic competence and identity are challenging tasks that I hope to highlight during my term.
Since immersion is key to the development of a solid analytic identity, candidate engagement within our organization is essential. Candidates are already involved in various groups in the organization, such as the Ethics Committee, Committee on Institutes (COI), Committee on New Training Facilities (CNTF), and the Program Committee. Candidates also participate on the editorial board of The American Psychoanalyst (TAP). Furthermore, as president-elect and president, Navah Kaplan and I are invited to attend many of the administrative meetings of the organization, including the meetings of the Board of Professional Standards (BOPS) and Executive Council. In fact, some members of the Association are interested in proposing a bylaw amendment that would give the Candidates' Council president the right to vote in Council. This would be a historic and vital development for the organization.
In addition to direct involvement with the membership, there are also several ways of becoming involved within the Candidates' Council directly. We need submissions and reviewers for our Paper Prize, contributions for our newsletter, research for our Ethnic Diversity Committee, assistance with our Digital Media and Communications Committee, and participation in our Candidates' Council Study Group. Our engagement both within the Candidates' Council and with the membership ensures that our voices are heard within an organization that we will inherit in the future.
To facilitate further candidate engagement I have begun promoting the involvement of candidates in several other aspects of APsaA life. To this end, Candidates' Council Education chair Caryn Schorr and I have been corresponding with Robert Michels, chair of the Committee on Psychoanalytic Education (COPE), to facilitate the integration of candidates into ongoing member study groups. Several e-mails have been sent on the candidate member listserv, and I hope that you take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to sit on study groups with senior analysts from around the country. Similarly, I plan to help foster a study group within the Candidates' Council. Consider joining this group as well.
Additionally, I hope to revitalize a mentorship program that would pair candidates with APsaA members. These mentorship relationships are intended to help candidates develop an analytic identity and practice through their affiliation with the organization and increase membership within the organization by personalizing that candidate's relationship with APsaA. We therefore need mentors both within the membership and the Candidates' Council.
Another exciting change involves our newsletter. We are transitioning to an electronic version of the Candidate Connection. I would like to thank the new co-editors of the newsletter, Michael Garfinkle and Jamieson Webster, for what I know will be an informative and thought-provoking newsletter during their tenure.
Finally, I am introducing the new title of analytic trainees within our organization. APsaA members voted on a change in the bylaws in April involving the name of the membership category for APsaA candidates. Candidates training at APsaA institutes who joined the Association were called “Affiliate Members.” With a change in the bylaws that category of membership will now be referred to as “Candidate Members,” a more straightforward title. Affiliate members are now officially called “Candidate Members.” To that end, the Affiliate Council changed its name at the 100th Annual meeting in June to Candidates' Council.
I look forward to assisting you as best I can on issues of training, immersion into analytic practice, and the inner workings of APsaA. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can help with any of these issues at 917-723-5841 or e-mail me at .
Hilli Dagony-Clark, Psy.D., is president of the Candiates' Council.